Page 158 - Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

142 Apuntes de Investigación en la Enseñanza de Idiomas

The role of beliefs on becoming an academic writer in ESL

Pauline Moore

Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México

Iraís Ramírez Balderas

Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala

Palabras clave: academic writing, beliefs about writing, writer development.

One of the defining qualities of a professional community is the development of a written culture
associated to that profession. There are many kinds of writing which operate in this way and which
are exclusively professional including reports, recommendations, administrative forms, but there is
also a large body of writing which supports the profession in connection with its attending acade-
mic discipline. Mastering the written practices which define the academic side of the profession is
a life-long process which is not well understood, but a profession which does not develop a strong
writing community will not attain the level of consolidation required to command respect from other
fields. Processes in writing instruction have changed across the years, but it also seems clear that
formal school-based writing instruction is only one phase in the development of a professional writer.
Writer development then continues through years of formative experiences which may be more or
less successful. This goes beyond mere mechanics of spelling, punctuation and writing grammatical
sentences into the realm of the effective communication of one’s own ideas in dialogue with the work
of others. With regard to the degree of success achieved in this process, beliefs with regard to writing
and one’s own level of participation seem to play a role.

Literature Review

Becoming an academic writer
The process of becoming an academic writer is a life-long journey, which involves many stages.
Ghaith (2002) discusses a range of variables which are continuously developed in writers. His model
includes the development of writing skills, awareness of writing purpose, self-perceptions of inde-
pendence and the ability to self-regulate. He classifies writers on a hierarchical scale from novice,
transitional, willing and independent. This linear model probably oversimplifies the acquisition of skills
which are complex and can vary within the individual writer with regard to the topic and genre. Ryan
(2014) addresses this short-coming through the identification of levels of reflexivity possible in writers.
However, this model is rather abstract and would not serve the purpose of providing a guide for writer
development within a specific field of knowledge like language teaching. In order to provide a model
of writer development which is specific to our field we need to look beyond the school years into how
we write after formal schooling has finished. We need to look at issues in the development of a voice
and the transformation from a writer into an author.